Ophiactis macrolepidota Marktanner-Turneretscher, 1887

Fatemi, Yaser & Stöhr, Sabine, 2019, Annotated species list of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, with new records, Zootaxa 4711 (1), pp. 77-106 : 95

Ophiactis macrolepidota Marktanner-Turneretscher, 1887

Ophiactis macrolepidota Marktanner-Turneretscher, 1887: 298 , pl. 12, figs 12, 13; Rowe & Gates 1995: 379.

Ophiactis parva Mortensen, 1926: 123 , Rowe & Gates 1995: 379.

Habitat: Substrate not recorded, 29 m ( Mortensen 1940).

Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman: Kuh-Mobarak (14) (ibid.).

Indian Ocean: Suez Canal ( Mortensen 1926), Red Sea ( Clark & Rowe 1971), Scattered Isl. ( Conand et al. 2013, 2016).

Remarks: The taxonomic status of this species may need to be revised with molecular methods. The current synonymy was proposed by Rowe in Rowe & Gates (1995) with a brief statement but no actual data. The included species ( O. macrolepidota , O. acosmeta H. L. Clark, 1938 , O. parva , O. delicata H. L. Clark, 1915 ) originate from widely separate parts of the world and show morphological differences, but the type material consists of small, probably immature specimens that are heavily affected by fission (Stöhr, unpublished observation), which makes them difficult to compare.